Failing arguments for the presence of iron in Denmark during the Bronze Age Period IV. Regarding the razors from Kjeldbymagle and Arnitlund and a knife from Grødby

ABSTRACT

The dark squiggly lines of the razors from Kjeldbymagle and Arnitlund are often mentioned, along with the knife from Grødby, as the earliest examples of iron in Denmark. The razors can be dated to the early Late Bronze Age (Period IV) – around 1000 BC – due to their form and ornamentation, while the iron knife from Grødby is reported to have been found in a slightly earlier urn burial.

Recent metallurgical analyses have, however, shown that the squiggly lines are not in fact iron, but rather copper covered by a layer of iron-bearing corrosion, and that the knife’s context with the other grave objects must be considered uncertain.

This means that there is no evidence for the presence of iron in Denmark until the very end of the Bronze Age – around 700–500 BC.

KEYWORDS:

• Early iron age
• iron
• introduction of iron

Acknowledgements

This article is partly written on the basis of a draft manuscript by the curator at the National Museum Olfert Voss (1926–2014). We thank the National Museum for the kind permission to publish the results of the three sets of metallurgical analyses.

We are also thankful for the valuable and thorough comments provided by two anonymous reviewers on an earlier draft of this paper.

Notes

1. ‘a beautifully ornamented knife.’

2. ‘a strongly meandering line of a likewise inlayed material (iron?).’

3. ‘a dark metal, different from the knife’s bronze. It looks like iron, and can, after carrying out partly microscopic, partly chemical investigation, be assumed to be that metal.’

4. The razor from Arnitlund was analysed by H. Baggesgård Rasmussen. The analysis is undated, but journalised at the National Museum in 1900 as 715/00. The razors from Arnitlund and Kjeldbymagle were analysed in 1979 and 1998: by Elmer Fabech (dated 19.2.1979) and Arne Jouttijärvi (dated April 1998). All analysis reports are archived at the National Museum.

5. ‘…a peculiar piece of metal, which resembles iron. Of its being found in the grave there is some doubt.’ Excerpts are from the letter of county governor E. Vedel dated 20 March 1869. Antiquities numbers NM B 323–333.